Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will have opening comments to the Minister recognizing that this is an operational and maintenance budget. I’m hoping to put another plug in, I know it’s not time for infrastructure but I will still continue with my consistent plea for an RCMP presence more consistently and maybe permanently in the communities without a detachment. For example, Colville Lake. I know the department is working on that with the Fort Good hope detachment and doing their best to make sure the presence is in Fort Good Hope. I’m going to just remind the Minister that I will continue until our Assembly is completed for ways the department can look at this with their deputies and directors. They have ways to look at it rather than coming back with the response no, we can’t do that, no, we can’t do that. I would like to hear some

maybes; maybe we can look at something. That’s more feasible to satisfy the people in Colville Lake. That community now is experiencing the presence of more alcohol abuse and illegal drugs coming into that community. I ask that the staff and the Minister give some consideration for the community of Colville Lake. I know the challenges the Minister has within his department, but perhaps there can be a way. I am looking for some help here.

Now I want to ask the Minister for other ways to look at dealing with justice, especially with inmates who are in our corrections facilities. I did talk earlier to the Minister. There is a lady in San Francisco. Her name is Dr. Mimi Silbert. Mimi Silbert has worked with 16,000 inmates over the past 30 years and she runs a program down in that area. There are no therapists, no professional supports, no guards.

Dr. Silbert has a very impressive record from her research and report. Ninety percent of the inmates that she worked with don’t go back to hard drugs or gangs. A lot of these inmates obtain a high school degree, college degree, a university degree. She has worked with 16,000 inmates. It’s a real unique program. That’s the type of innovation that I’m looking for from this department. It would be wonderful to have her come up and speak to the officials or to community justice like on-the-land programs, community justice, and we can do something. It’s been proven. It’s in a book that I’m reading right now. It talks about Dr. Silbert. It talks about many other people, education with health. The section I’m reading is on justice. She could bring that experience to us, especially in the North here with the Minister.

When you have a record like that, that shows that you don’t need any guards or therapists or professional support, and she has a program that maybe could be used in the Northwest Territories. Why not try something like this maybe in our region where maybe we aren’t getting a very good uptake or there are some reasons that we can’t do justice and healing on the land?

Fort Good Hope has been asking for an on-the-land program. There are barriers. Why don’t we look at this and have Dr. Silbert come to the North and work with us? That type of goal, direction, thinking, that could happen.

I’m making a public plea right now with the Minister in looking at how do we work with inmates that shouldn’t be in there. I’m very happy to hear that the Wellness Court is coming into force. We supported it. Thank you to the Minister and the staff to get that all set up, because a lot of people who are in those facilities could maybe benefit from the Wellness Court. I heard that in my region.

The Minister made a statement in the House earlier about illegal bootlegging that’s going on in the communities. That’s a lot of money if you look at $60 for a bottle. How many bottles, 51 bottles on one of his notes there? That’s about $3,000. So when they say they don’t have money, I say no, you have money. It’s there. It’s just that you don’t have money for… Your priorities are not quite all fit in line. There’s something not right here, so we need to change that. I’m looking to see how the Minister is working to increase it and tell people that by these seizures of liquor, it’s quick, easy money, but it’s competition against the government. You need to know that you’re breaking the law. On top of that, you’re contributing constantly to a serious health or danger in the

community. We have lots of people in our region and we need to really think about this. It’s more important to get the people to really think about this issue here.

The last point I want to state is the community of law enforcement. Can we look at auxiliary police in our communities for the young people? I know some people in some of my communities had looked at being an RCMP member. It’s volunteering. I don’t know how it will work in the small communities, doing minor law enforcement or tagging along with the regular members. It might be something to look at in order to bring some hope to our young people.

We have to do a whole bunch of things because of what we’re experiencing now with the funding with our government, looking at with Justice, the courts, on-the-land programs, a whole wide range of services that the department is providing in our communities. I guess I want to look at that and see if there is any type of possible justice conference that can be looked at in the regions. I would really consider strongly to suggest to the Minister that we invite Dr. Mimi Silbert up and look at this and take advantage of her 30 years of experience working with 16,000 inmates. Ninety percent do not go back to drugs or gangs. A lot of them have college or education degrees. Let’s learn from her experience. Can we use that here in both of our centres here? I would suggest that they have some discussion. I look forward to her maybe coming into our region. We want to do on-the-land program. We need those types of people.

Thank you to the Minister for the hard work your staff are doing and being open. Thanks to the RCMP members who are working in our small communities. We have to say thank you because we don’t say thank you enough. Sometimes we get on too fast. They have a job to do and it’s our responsibility as public to uphold our bargain here. I want to say that in all goodness of my heart. Thank you, Mr. Chair.